Paolo Villaggio - A short passage about Socrates from his new book

I have been kindly allowed by Feltrinelli editor and by the author to anticipate a little passage from the beginning of the first chapter of the book ‘The history of the free thought’ written by Paolo Villaggio. Socrates (469 B.C.-399 B.C.). Athens: a sunny morning of 399 B.C.: there were a lot of people on the Acropolis, they were walking and discussing about different themes. There were several groups. Sometimes someone stopped and complained about heath: ‘By God! It is really too hot...’, drying his forehead with the back of his hand. One said: ‘I have never been so hot, only once in Crete...’. 'What happens Democritus?’ ‘Are you afraid your new Retzina (wine) gets acid?’ another asked, sitting on the steps of Parthenon. Democritus laughed: ‘you know, Demosthenes, I don’t give a damn about wine, wine producers and all the people having a lot of money! Your are probably not worried, being a poet of wine! Can I give you an advice? Go on drinking, because the wine you gulp is an extraordinary energy for your creative power and a joy for us!’. A young poet, Mimnermo, who was walking alone, stopped a middle-aged man. He had a nice face and he was walking with some thirty, very young boys. Some were almost children. ‘Sorry Mr. Socrates, the poet said, I know you. You are very famous here in Athens’. ‘Thank you, but you are a bit exaggerated. In stead you are the well-known Mimnermo. I have read all your works, and I must tell you that your ode on death in war is really beautiful: dying for your homeland is certainly beautiful. But I do not agree, dear young, on this macabre philosophy about death, heroism, death in war...I find it an awful excuse, on the mean merchants’ side, to convince the young, who have a whole happy life ready to be spent, to throw it away to get rich together with their accomplishes. That means these young would renounce the most precious gift men receive on their birthday: life!’ The young poet heard him with some embarrassment. 'Motherland, yes...motherland- Socrates continued- a vague and abstract concept. The word homeland is useful to those who cause war only to defend his commercial interests. I am talking about olive oil producers, of salted –fish- merchants or of scarce wine tasting resin. You see resin costs less but wine is really awful. Yet, they have convinced everybody that this wine is the most suitable for every occasion. These men are all joint together by a deep lack of culture and curiosity, they never read and they are stupid, vulgar and ignorant. And you, dear young, you write a commoving hymn on these beggars’ side?’ The young around them, that Socrates called disciples, had listened to that sermon with admiration and they clapped their hands. Even Mimnermo joined them: ‘you are an extraordinary man, Master...I would like to talk to you’. ‘As you like, dear young. We are the peripatetic, we go on walking here, from the Erected to the Parthenon and vice versa. Every day, dear young, even when it rains. I like rain, unless it is too violent. Rain exalts the smells, of the marbles all around, of the land, of the olive trees. Rain is sensual. You can speak with us about everything you are interested in. never sitting... always walking! When you move your brain receives more oxygen and it works better! Socrates looked Mimnermo deep into his eyes ‘you have very beautiful eyes- he said – come again!’ and he continued walking with his disciples. Some steps onward he turned again and said:’ you have also a very beautiful body and I would like to sleep with you!’